It’s imperative that operating rooms be kept clean in order to ensure patient and healthcare staff safety from harmful microorganisms. Terminal cleaning is typically carried out after an operating room has been used to treat a patient with a multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) infection.

MDROs, like Methicillin Resistant Staph aureus (MRSA), Vancomycin Resistant Enterococci (VRE) and Clostridioides Difficile Infection (CDI or C-diff), are resistant to several different types of antibiotics.

Terminal cleaning must be conducted on an operating room after it’s used to treat patients with MDRO infections to prevent the spread of these deadly contagions.

What is Terminal Cleaning?

Terminal cleaning refers to the cleaning procedures used to control the spread of infectious diseases in a healthcare environment.

While methods vary between healthcare institutions, terminal cleaning routines usually include:

• Removing all detachable objects
• Disinfecting lighting and air duct surfaces
• Cleaning everything downward to the floor

Items removed from the room are disinfected or sanitized and returned.

Terminal Cleaning of Operating Rooms: How To

The first step in terminal cleaning is for staff to suit up in barrier garments, including face masks, gloves and booties, in order to prevent the spread of microorganisms outside of the contaminated room.

After staff have properly suited up, they will:

1. Remove all detachable objects from the room in order to disinfect them in specified controlled environments. This allows them to be returned after the terminal cleaning has taken place.

2. Use approved cleaning chemicals to disinfect the room from the ceiling to the floor.

3. Start by cleaning all lighting fixtures and grates adorning the ceiling, working down to the walls and eventually the floor.

If there’s equipment or instruments that can’t be removed from the room before cleaning, they must be scrubbed and disinfected thoroughly. For those items, staff must:

4. Completely disinfect wheels, pads, railings and any other surface of equipment to ensure the most thorough disinfecting of the operating room takes place.

Once the room has been deemed safe for further use, disinfected machinery and equipment that was initially removed can be reinstalled in its proper place for future use.

All barrier garments should be disposed of, with gloves being last. All the garments should be placed in a plastic bag and sealed before being disposed of, or sent to a facility with regulated cleaning processes.

Terminal Cleaning of Operating Rooms: Electrostatic Spray Disinfection

Electrostatic spray disinfection is a comparable alternative to terminal cleaning of operating rooms; as it is a hands-free way to easily cover surfaces with an electrically charged mist.

With the disinfecting mist being charged, the spray easily wraps around the surfaces of machinery, light fixtures and other odd surfaces all while being sprayed from one angle. Electrostatic spray can be used in conjunction with other terminal cleaning techniques in operating rooms to help ensure a thorough disinfection before the room is reused.

Questioning the efficiency of your cleaning staff when it comes to terminal cleaning of your operating rooms and healthcare facility at large? Contact us today for a free consultation.

A thorough cleaning regiment must be employed by hospital cleaning and janitorial staff in order to ensure proper microbe and disease remediation for the safety of employees, and most importantly of patients. A hospital or healthcare environment is unique in the respect that it houses people with compromised health, while also housing potentially deadly diseases and microbes in proximity, and often in the same room. It’s for this reason that hospital cleaning procedures and methods must be full-proof and carried out by qualified staff who can ensure satisfactory microbial and disease remediation.

Read more “Hospital Cleaning Procedures & Methods: How to Ensure a Spotless Environment of Care”

When it comes to the world of cleaning, there are two distinct service types available: commercial cleaning and residential cleaning. There are a few key differences that make the two cleaning options appropriate for different buildings and cleaning needs. The most obvious difference is the facility type, including sanitary requirements and use schedules which dictate when a commercial cleaning company is needed over a residential one; but there are other differences. This blog will discuss and dissect commercial and residential cleaning services, and the context in which each is most appropriate.

Read more “Commercial Cleaning vs. Residential Cleaning: What’s the Difference?”

Cleanroom standards are some of the most stringent to adhere to. A cleanroom must be meticulously cleaned and disinfected depending on the type of research, development or assembly taking place within it. For instance, a clean room used for developing or assembling pharmaceuticals has a wide range of factors that will contribute to its classification, depending on how clean the room needs to be in order for untainted assembly and production to take place.

Read more “Cleanroom Classifications: How to Properly Disinfect Each Type”

A school, office or healthcare facility’s fitness center equipment and locker room are some of the dirtiest places on the campus premises, where harmful germs, viruses and parasites love to fester and hide.

Read more “Fitness Center Cleaning Checklist for Schools, Offices and Healthcare Facilities”

The need for a clean and safe office, school or R&D lab is more important than ever, especially when flu and cold season begins to rear its congested head. While some businesses rely on the services offered by independent janitorial services, they often lack standardized cleaning practices, techniques and follow-through that can leave your place of work a hot zone for resilient germs.

Read more “Why You Need Professional Cleaning Services for Your School, Office or Lab”

The flu is one of the most common and deadly viruses that exists. This year is the first time that the flu is projected to be equally widespread across the United States¹. It’s also projected to cause the highest amount of casualties, with 80,000 flu-associated deaths projected by year’s end². As a result of its widespread and deadly nature, and with flu season approaching, the need to keep commercial buildings, such as office spaces, schools and health care facilities, free of the viruses’ germs is more urgent than ever before.

Read more “How Long Does the Flu Last in Commercial Buildings?”

Flu season is on its way, and that means it’s time to prepare to rigorously clean professional and shared spaces in an effort to combat the spread of the flu. Killing the influenza virus requires a customized approach for different spaces, depending on their common touch points and trafficked areas.

Read more “How to Kill the Flu Virus: A Guide for Schools, Hospitals & Offices”

Research and development cleanrooms that operate on a daily basis for pharmaceutical or electronics development organizations, among others, must maintain the sanctity of their cleanroom space with proper, professional and thorough cleaning—nothing less. Avoiding or improperly cleaning the controlled space can result in catastrophic cross contamination, wrongful results, lawsuits or worse.

Read more “A Quick Start Guide to Proper Cleanroom Cleaning”

America loves to eat out; in 2015, 19 million people reported visiting a full-service restaurant at least once during the year, with 49 million more reporting that they ate in a quick service restaurant in 2016¹. In addition to restaurants, many buildings that have their own cafeteria and food prep areas use commercial kitchens.

Read more “How To Deep Clean a Commercial Kitchen”